Sunday's Downton Abbey on PBS Masterpiece brought a nice, gentle close to a difficult, unsatisfactory season. At the end we got to see Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes on a rare day off, at the English seaside, wading into the water and holding hands like two children afraid of being carried off by a wave.

This may even have hinted at a growing, sunset intimacy between the two. Given all the misalliances on Downton, what could be better than the prospect of a romance between the two characters with the best hearts?

Considering last season's brutal finale and the sometimes ridiculous swings of the show's plot, this could very well mean that Carson winds up like poor Mr. Pamuk, smuggled out of a bedroom wrapped in a sheet. Not yet, anyway.

Yes, love is in the air at Downton, and there's no better place to show it off than at the church bazaar. While Lord Grantham is in America helping Cora's brother out of jam (which history knows as the Teapot Dome Scandal), Cora manages to stage an elaborate fundraiser for the church, complete with games, drinks, bunting and plenty of gossip.

Here are 7 quotes to remember from this season's penultimate episode:

1. It's not exactly news to Mary, given that Tom Branson saw Rose and Jack Ross out on the town together, and she's not very happy about the match, which seems driven less by true love than by Rose's desire to retaliate against her hated mother. ("I want to see her face crumble!") Concerned about the engagement, Mary heads to London to petition Ross, who is surprisingly receptive and agrees not to marry Rose, but for a different reason entirely: He loves her, and doesn’t want to ruin her life with the complications of an interracial marriage. A surprisingly tolerant Mary understands, but adds, "To be fair to papa, he would find you being a bandleader harder to swallow than your color."

Shocking, but true: Lady Mary got down and dirty on the Feb. 9 episode of Downton Abbey, but it was Rose and Edith who had far darker secrets to conceal.

Here are seven of Sunday's more memorable quotes, as the passive-aggressive Downton drama unfolded:

1. While Mary and Mr. Blake revealed an instant, though superficially courteous, dislike for each other, things quickly heated up as Blake soon realized that Mary isn't just another aloof aristocrat. When the two went to inspect the estate's newly arrived pigs, he realizes the poor animals are dehydrated and on the verge of dying. When he suggests Mary leave so he can save the pigs, she balks, "I'm not going, they're my pigs!" Working side by side, the two – dressed in their dinner-at-Downton best – spend hours carting buckets of water through the mud to save the pigs, finally lightening the tension (on every level) by breaking into a mud fight. Returning to the house, Mary cooks up some scrambled eggs – further impressing Blake – and thanks him: And thus is a new flame ignited.

Skipped this week's episode of Downton Abbey to watch the Grammy Awards? Find out what happened with our recap in seven quotes. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

1. "Well, it's in the open. No more secrets." After a grueling couple of episodes in which Anna avoids Bates at all costs, Bates bullies Mrs. Hughes into telling him the truth, and, just like that, the secret is finally out in the open. While Anna and Mrs. Hughes conspire to throw Bates off the scent by insisting that Lord Gillingham's valet, Green, wasn't the attacker, Bates does not buy it. While he and Anna work on their relationship – and Anna moves back into the house – at the end of the episode, Bates ominously growls, “Nothing's over and done with.”

There was a pall cast over Downton after the dark events of last week's episode. Fortunately, to lift the spirits, this week brought a trip to London, a surprising and modest proposal, dancing at the Lotus Club and the comeuppance of a certain conniving maid.

Here, in seven quotes, is everything you need to know about Sunday night's episode of Downton Abbey:

Maggie Smith turns 79 Saturday. And while the inimitable actress's career spans six decades, she's currently beloved for her meme-worthy one-liners as the caustic Lady Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, on Downton Abbey.

What better way to celebrate Smith's birthday than with a look back at some of her funniest zingers? There's sure to be plenty more to come when Downton Abbey's fourth season premieres on PBS Jan. 5.

The fourth season of Downton Abbey won't be on the air in the U.S. until next year, but fans of the British drama can get a tantalizing glimpse of what the lies ahead for the Crawley family in a new one-minute trailer.

As Lady Mary continues to mourn the loss of her husband, Matthew, who died in a car accident at the end of the last season, her grandmother, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, tells her: "You have a straightforward choice, you must choose either death or life."

I was worried that the ABC melodrama – about a beautiful political fixer with conflicted romantic feelings for a handsome, emotionally disturbed president – wouldn't be considered serious enough to merit attention.

Actually, now that I've written that out, I can see why the show might not be considered serious. It's ridiculous. And, in fact, it was shut out of the other top categories. (Although Dan Bucatinsky got a guest-actor nod.)

No stranger to period pieces – as those who saw him in the superlative HBO miniseries John Adams will attest – Paul Giamatti is joining the cast of Downton Abbey next year, for the season 4 finale, PBS announced on its website Monday.

He'll play the playboy brother of Cora, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), and the son of Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine, who is also returning to the popular British drama).

"Downton Abbey has seen many great characters visit the house over the years, and we couldn't be more thrilled to welcome the new faces that will be joining the regular cast of Downton Abbey in Season 4," the show's executive producer, Gareth Neame, said in a statement that really doesn't spill any beans.